Arcing Powerlines Cause Tree Fire & Explosion
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Stumble ThisRaw video: Arcing Powerlines Cause Tree Fire & Explosion
BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- Arcing wires are being blamed for a spectacular explosion that took place in this Northern Washington city over the weekend.
"It basically felt like a bomb going off," said Skurdal. The arc caused a power surge, damaging many computers and circuit breakers in the neighborhood. Some 4,500 people were left without power.
The Bellingham Fire Department says it got a call of arcing wires and passed that information on to Puget Sound Energy. Asst. Fire Chief Roger Christensen said the department doesn't typically respond to call of arcing wires unless flames are also reported. In this case, the spokesman said, nobody did.
BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- Arcing wires are being blamed for a spectacular explosion that took place in this Northern Washington city over the weekend.
"It basically felt like a bomb going off," said Skurdal. The arc caused a power surge, damaging many computers and circuit breakers in the neighborhood. Some 4,500 people were left without power.
The Bellingham Fire Department says it got a call of arcing wires and passed that information on to Puget Sound Energy. Asst. Fire Chief Roger Christensen said the department doesn't typically respond to call of arcing wires unless flames are also reported. In this case, the spokesman said, nobody did.
I think standard practice in certain areas, meaning what Ive seen, most transformers are either on the ground, or underground.
I'm also pretty sure that's where the phone lines go, as well as the subnetwork for your particular networks.
That is why you should never connect directly to your modem, because then you are accessing the subnetwork with out the benefit of a Gateway. Always connect through a switched router, for an extra hop that is designed to cause trouble for hecklers.
But you never heard that from me.
No circuit breakers on the power lines?
It appears as load to the grid, so it happily continues to provide power without tripping anything. This page explains it better with a video thats been re-posted to youtube about a hundered times.
Fuses are closer to the customer end (between the transformer and the customer) and disconnect (explode!) just the customer when there is a problem, circuit breakers are back at the substation and would likely attempt to re-close to solve a temporary problem like phase-phase arc.
Adding video to channels (Fear) - requested by ant.
This is a good reason to always make underground power lines in urban areas. Where I live the only place with high voltage power lines is the countryside.
YEAH BURN YOU STUPID SUMBITCH TREE WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU COULD GROW THERE
4:10 - "Hey, why'd this breaker flip?"
4:13 - Employee flips breaker back to on.
4:18 - Breaker flips off again.
4:19 - "Hmph. I guess something IS shorting out somewhere..."
I would have laughed if the electricity followed along the roots and zapped them.
Yeah, stupid physics.
[edit]stupid but resilient.
>> ^Payback:
I would have laughed if the electricity followed along the roots and zapped them.
Yeah, stupid physics.
Yeah, that and stupid people not realizing that electricity follows the path of least resistance and at those voltages is completely random. Whether they be standing too close or commenting out their ass on an internet forum. The voltage is trying to equalize itself with the power plant, so the closer you are to where large voltages short to ground, the more likely you are to become part of the circuit. This video is barely different than watching a downed line spark.
**BOOOM**
"Wow man, that was awesome.. oh well, let's go back inside.."
**BUUUUZZZZZ**
>> ^Kevlar:
OMIGOD COME SEE YOU GUYS THIS INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS SCENARIO IS SO AWESOME TO WATCH FROM 30 FEET AWAY
YEAH BURN YOU STUPID SUMBITCH TREE WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU COULD GROW THERE